Kaepernick, Ryan: striking contrast

Long before he made the Packers look like they were chasing Usain Bolt, Colin Kaepernick excitedly described the adrenaline rush of breaking a long run. This was late September, when Kaepernick labored in obscurity, but he already understood the exhilaration of dashing through a defense.

“That’s the ultimate feeling of being an athlete,” he said then. “You get in the open field and you get a chance to show your speed against the speed of linebackers and defensive backs, who are considered some of the best athletes in the world.”

Just a wild guess here: Matt Ryan has not expressed a similar sentiment.

Kaepernick’s words seem prescient in retrospect, given the way he jetted downfield on his 56-yard touchdown run in Saturday’s 45-31 playoff win over Green Bay. It was a telling snapshot of the New Age quarterback in all his swift, electric splendor.

And now, with a Super Bowl berth at stake, New Age meets Old School. One of the most fascinating layers of Sunday’s NFC Championship Game will be Kaepernick matching skills and styles with Ryan, a striking contrast of quarterbacks who are different in nearly every way.

Start with their arrivals in the NFL. Atlanta took Ryan with the third overall choice in the 2008 draft, from Boston College. The 49ers didn’t select Kaepernick, from little old Nevada, until the 36th overall pick in 2011.

Ryan instantly slid into the starting lineup, leading the Falcons to an 11-5 record as a rookie. Kaepernick didn’t start until his 26th regular-season game as a pro, and only then because Alex Smith was recovering from a concussion.

Or consider their playoff personas: Ryan absorbed losses in his first three postseason appearances and quickly became synonymous with big-game failure, until he finally delivered in Sunday’s dramatic (and near-disastrous) 30-28 victory over Seattle.

Kaepernick, in his very first playoff game, tore through the record books as if he were still playing on a sandlot in Turlock.

Most striking of all is the way Kaepernick and Ryan play the position. Ryan is the prototypical drop-back passer: tall, strong and perfectly content to stand in the pocket and fire passes downfield.

Kaepernick (also tall and strong) can fire passes downfield, absolutely, but he wisely owns no loyalty to the pocket. As his demolition of the Packers showed, Kaepernick needs to spread his wings to be fully appreciated.

If this happens again Sunday at the Georgia Dome – and fast guys get only faster on fake grass – it’s easy to imagine Ryan muttering about New Age quarterbacks all offseason. He barely survived his encounter with Seattle’s slippery Russell Wilson, kind of the mini-Kaep, and now Ryan must outduel Kaepernick himself.

Jim Harbaugh’s shiny new toy is flamboyant and fun to watch, but don’t dismiss Ryan simply because he would get dusted by Kaepernick in a 40-yard dash. Wilson is fast, too, and he’s sitting at home.

Ryan, for all the attention on his playoff pratfalls, belongs in the conversation about “elite quarterbacks.” He, not Aaron Rodgers, led the league in completion percentage (68.6) this season. Ryan’s regular-season record of 56-22 is actually better than Rodgers’ (52-26) over the same span.

No, we’re not saying Ryan is better than Rodgers. But the QB can really play.

He merely offers a more traditional way to torment opposing defenses than Kaepernick does. The 49ers need not worry about Ryan racing downfield like Kaepernick – Ryan’s longest career run, in five seasons, is 20 yards – but they must pressure him or he will find Julio Jones, Roddy White or Tony Gonzalez.

Ryan seldom needs to run with those receivers on his side.

Kaepernick, meantime, will keep running and running if the 49ers are smart. Atlanta has struggled to contain mobile, dual-threat quarterbacks, and not even Robert Griffin III defined “dual threat” the way Kaepernick did against the Packers.

His running style, chewing up ground with those long strides, evokes comparisons to former Eagles quarterback Randall Cunningham (though John Madden says Kaepernick reminds him more of Bolt, the Olympic sprinter). Kaepernick, in the September interview, said his uncle once told him about the similarity, prompting Kaepernick to check out some old Cunningham highlights.

“We’re both tall and kind of lanky,” Kaepernick said. “It looks a little bit goofy, but at the same time, you’re making people miss, getting yards, making plays.”

Ryan might not make people miss, but he makes plays in his own way. And that gives us a tantalizing quarterback contrast: New Age against Old School, winner goes to New Orleans.